As people my age would put it, Donald Trump is so back. From rolling back DEI requirements to planning tariffs harsh enough to incite a trade war to letting Elon Musk loose on the federal government, Trump seems determined to crush the United States in an ever-tightening right-wing fist.

I’m not here to give a rundown of the things he’s done; any news source will do that. I reckon most of you have been watching the headlines roll through your fingers, dread increasing as Trump fires off slogan after slogan, grasping at the role of dictator in all but name. I know a lot of you have considered hunkering down and letting it pass, or perhaps looked into moving to Canada or Portugal; anywhere but here.

Now is not the time to run away. The United States is where we live, and it is our responsibility to ensure it is livable for people who may not be privileged enough to consider moving elsewhere. We cannot abandon our neighbors to this regime.

What we are going to do is look inward. Yes, the policies that President Trump puts out are terrifying, but it is the local communities that are responsible for enacting them. In spite of Trump, we can choose to help one another; to continue sheltering and caring for those most marginalized.

I was told once that the revolution is like a relay race. We can’t expect to undo everything President Trump will enact in one go. What we can do is take the baton and run with it as far as we can before handing it off to the next generation; to leave our community just a little better than we found it.

Talk to your neighbors; really get to know them and then organize together. Bring groceries to the bed-bound elderly person down the street. Decide collectively to shelter unhoused people that wander into the neighborhood. Volunteer at the local food pantry, or see what food-insecure neighbors need and raise money to stock them up.

Help make sure local trans kids are playing on the sports teams that match their gender identities. Put the dollars you’d normally put toward donating to a large national organization into a mutual aid fund. We are stronger when we come together and organize locally.

If you can, run for local office, City Council, School Committee, Planning Board. Use your power to lessen the effects of Trump’s edicts on the people around you. If you have a management role at a company that is considering rolling back their DEI program, vote against it. While it may seem hopeless, now is not the time to give up. Things may be dire in the federal government, but on the ground we can come together and make sure we all weather the storm. No one gets left behind.

I understand that some of these actions are easier said than done. Going against some of Trump’s policies could be unsafe, especially for those with marginalized identities. I am only asking that you do what you can, when you can. Do not throw up your hands and admit defeat.

In the words of our Sen. Ed Markey: Organize, organize, organize! Our real power lies in what we can do as a collective. Trump wants us at odds with one another, scrabbling for the last scrap as the uber-rich double and triple their wealth. We will show Trump and his cronies that we will not go down so easily. True resistance lies in helping your neighbor even when federal policy says otherwise.

Madeline Raymond is a former columnist for the Recorder and student at Bryn Mawr. She lives in Goshen.